Saturday, December 31, 2016

3 Nephi 5:7-8 On the Great and Marvelous

"And thus had the twenty and second year passed away, and the twenty and third year also, and the twenty and fourth, and the twenty and fifth; and thus had twenty and five years passed away.
And there had many things transpired which, in the eyes of some, would be great and marvelous; nevertheless, they cannot all be written in this book; yea, this book cannot contain even a hundredth part of what was done among so many people in the space of twenty and five years;"
3 Nephi 5:7-8

I like this. It's good to remember both that the scriptures can't possibly contain all of the history of God's dealings with man, and also that there are so many great and marvelous things out there that we don't focus on. We sometimes focus just on the highest highs and the lowest lows, and often on the bad more than the good, coming to the conclusion that everything is bad or that only the drama matters. But often the great and marvelous are the things that happen everyday. They aren't always the ones that we write down or include on the highlights reel, but they matter because they were there every day, and made life more fun, or interesting, or tolerable, or exciting, in that day. And our lives are composed of those little things, added up into who we are. Sometimes big experiences change us, but more often it is the little ones, over time, and the choices we make about what we will do and who we want to be, each day.

Today, as we are tempted to think in dramatic terms and look only for the lightning bolts... let's remember that the less dramatic light is a lot more consistent and enlightening. :) Let's embrace today, and make good choices and be good people right now, in the moment that we are in. And as we make that determination... and continue to make it, we will build up some great and marvelous things in our lives. That everyday consistency will bring us joy and peace and goodness, whether or not it is impressive to anyone else.

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The scriptural commentary presented here is based on books of scripture recognized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so you'll see scriptures from several books like the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, etc.

This collection started in 1999 as the Scripture of the Day email list (before there was a blog). The search on this page doesn't always work for the older scriptures, but you can still get to them in the archive. I am in the process of adding all the older content.